International Leprosy Association - History of Leprosy

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Gafarias existed in Portugal, in the time of Dom Alfonso Henriques [Other][Europe]

1200

Twenty-six leper houses in Provence, France. [Epidemiology][Europe]

1223

King Afonso II of Portugal, who suffered from leprosy, died at thirty-eight years [Other][Europe]

1248

San Lázaro Hospital of Seville – this hospital cared for patients until 1930s. It “served as the founding and management prototype for those Spanish leprosy hospitals in the New World.” Esateban Moreno Toral and M Teresa Lopez Dias, “The Influence of the San Lázaro Hospital of Seville in the Creation and Management Techniques of the `Lazaretto’ Hospitals in the Americas,” International Journal of Leprosy 65,2 (1 June 1997): 252-55 quoted in Thomas Hunter Smith, A Monument to Lazarus: The Evolution of the Leprosy Hospital of Rio de Janeiro Dissertation 1999. [Other][Europe]

1256

Leprosy known in the Crimea (Rogers 3). [Other][Europe]

1266

Leprosy known in Bergen, Norway (Rogers 3). [Other][Europe]

1271

The present term for leprosy is "Ma-feng", which was first used in the medicinal book written by Zhu Zhen-Xiang of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD). Information supplied by H Y Li )[Other][China]

1300

Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century: Decline of leprosy in Europe. [Epidemiology][Europe]

Shen Zhi-Wen, a leprologist from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), in his book Jie Wei Yuan Shu, termed leprosy as "Feng Lai" and regarded it as a contagious disease. Information supplied by H Y Li )[People][China]

1368

In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) leprosy was called by a term that meant a punishment from heaven. Information supplied by H Y Li )[Other][China]

Xue Yi (1488-1588), a famous doctor from the Ming Dynasty described "dialectical methods" for the treatment of the disease in a monograph on leprosy titledLi Yang Ji YaoInformation supplied by H Y Li )[Treatment, People][China]

1500

Sixteenth Century: According to Maurano (1944), the Portuguese would have been responsible for the introduction of leprosy to Brazil; he claims the disease arrived there with the colonisers who disembarked at the first colonies, principally Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Recife, at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries.
Source: F. Maurano, Tratado de leprologia. História da lepra no Brasil e sua distribuição geográfica. Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Saúde. Departamento Nacional de Saúde. Serviço Nacional de Lepra, 1944. V.1, pp. 16-19. Cited in: AP Velloso, & V Andrade, Hanseníase: curar para eliminar. Porto Alegre, 2002. [Epidemiology][Brazil, Europe]

Sixteenth - Eighteenth Centuries: Leprosy spread from Africa to Santo Domingo, Cartagena, Jamaica, parts of South America and southern United States. [Epidemiology][Africa, North America, South America, West Indies]

1500

Beginning of the slave trade, San Domingo. [Other][West Indies]

1500

1500-1591 - Souza Araújo claims in History of Anti-leprosy Legislation in South America in the Colonial period that leprosy was imported by European immigrants and especially by African slaves; about 50 000 of them. [Epidemiology][Brazil, Europe]

1518

Li Shi-Zhen (1518-1593), the great Chinese pharmacologist, confirmed the effect of chaulmoogra oil in the treatment of leprosy in his classic work Ben Cao Gang Mu. He also described methods of preparation of the remedy. Information supplied by H Y Li )[Treatment, People][China]

1519

Jesus Chico asserted that the Spanish conquistadors of Mexico discovered many cases of leprosy among the natives (questionable - perhaps pinto or leishmaniasis). [Other][Central America]

1520

1920s - Spanish established the first leprosy hospital at Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola [Other][West Indies]

January 31: first documentary evidence of leprosaria in Cape Verde in a letter from the King of Portugal, appointing 'Francisco de Aruajo, accountant ... caretaker of orphans, hospitals, chapels, monasteries and leprosaria ['gafarias'] on the islands of Cabo Verdi. A Loretti, and D Garbellini, 'Leprosy in the Cape Verde Islands', Leprosy Review (1981), 52: 337-48, p. 338. [Other][Africa]

1531

FogoJan 31: first documentary evidence of leprosaria in Cape Verde in a letter from the King of Portugal, appointing 'Francisco de Aruajo, accountant ... caretaker of orphans, hospitals, chapels, monasteries and leprosaria ['gafarias'] on the islands of Cabo Verdi. A Loretti, and D Garbellini, 'Leprosy in the Cape Verde Islands', Leprosy Review (1981), 52: 337-48, p. 338. [Leprosarium][Cape Verde]

1531

San Ant&acirc;oJan 31: first documentary evidence of leprosaria in Cape Verde in a letter from the King of Portugal, appointing 'Francisco de Aruajo, accountant ... caretaker of orphans, hospitals, chapels, monasteries and leprosaria ['gafarias'] on the islands of Cabo Verdi. A Loretti, and D Garbellini, 'Leprosy in the Cape Verde Islands', Leprosy Review (1981), 52: 337-48, p. 338. [Leprosarium][Cape Verde]

Peru - Souza-Araujo states in “History of Antileprosy Legislation in South America in the Colonial period” that there were a few cases in Lima, but the disease did not become prevalent [Epidemiology][South America]

1563

Antón Sanchez opened the first leprosy hospital in Lima, Peru [Other][South America]